How safe is your puncture repair?

I was called out to a customer with a flat tyre this week, he had had a puncture repair on the same tyre two weeks ago, by a tyre depot in Bognor Regis and the same tyre had gone flat again. Since he could ot drive on a flat tyre he decided to call out Hometyre to see if I could find the source of the leak and seal it for him.

I arrived at his house and soon removed the wheel, pumped some air into it and then checked or the leak. It was soon obvious that it was leaking from the same hole as had previously been fixed. I took the tyre off of the wheel to see what the problem was and found that the tyre depot had only made a 'temporary repair' to the tyre, this is where they push a bunched up coil of string and glue through the hole from the outside. (See photo below).

This type of repair is usually only carried out by the roadside emergancy services as a 'Get you home or to a Tyre repair place', it is not a permanent repair, and the roadside services use these temporary repairs as they do not carry the equipment to take a tyre off and on and make a permanent repair.

We at Hometyre do not use this type of repair, we only carry out permanent repairs according to British standards making the tyre safe for you to continue driving on it. We take the tyre off of the wheel, clean up the area to be repaired, and glue in a mushroom style plug patch from the inside. (See photo below).

The type of repair we carry out when done correctly, will generally last for he rest of the life of the tyre. Temporary repairs are only designed to last for around 200 miles, and you should drive on them at reduced speeds. So next time you need a repair making to one of your tyres, please call us at Hometyre on 0333 444 5454 and have the job done properly.